Imagine yourself at the Wellesley College re-imagined Davis Museum

After a three-year project to reimagine the Wellesley College Davis Museum and more than double the objects on view to around 600 (including three galleries of African art, most of which was previously relegated to storage), the Davis has officially re-opened its five floors to receive all comers. They welcome the art-viewing public just as the campus is whipping itself into a frenzy in order to properly welcome Dr. Paula Johnson, the school’s 14th president.

We’ve been regulars at the Davis for years, appreciating it as a local treasure where we can bring out-of-towners, the free admission, their patience with children, and the next-door Collins Cafe where we can get good soups, salads, and sandwiches after touring the galleries.

Here are a few of our favorite things at the museum:

Laughing Fool, circa 1500, is attributed to Jacob Cornelisz van Oostanen. An all-time family favorite of ours, he used to hang alone at the top of a staircase, but he now hangs in a gallery with other works. The change makes sense, given his chosen profession of Fool. Our guy here doesn’t wear that red and yellow hooded suit with donkey ears because he’s a loner. Fools are people-person types. The bells on his costume allow him to amp up the cacophony of foolishness with just a shake of his head, should he feel apathy settling in among those he is entertaining.

The museum scored this small Jackson Pollock from an alumnae bequest. It shows his experimental and famous drip technique. And yes, we’ve snorted about how our kids could so do this. And yet, as I remind my family, why are there no fake Jackson Pollock’s on our family room walls if they’re so easy to do?

Love this portrait of Wellesley College students Kiki Djos (Class of 1968) and Nancy Selvage (Class of 1967), by Alice Neel. The girls just ooze steady, ongoing confidence and privilege. I do believe those are Pappagallo shoes, dahling.

Loading was artist Tim Okamura’s first painting to enter a museum collection. Like many of the works in the museum, it’s been moved, but not for the better to my eye. The women used to appear larger than life and absolutely demanded attention in their previous spot. Now, here on a stairway landing, they just don’t grab me as forcefully.

This ubiquitous chair, designed in 1928 by Marcel Breuer, is still in production today. It’s so ubiquitous that I remember it sitting on one in my childhood kitchen. Now I’m looking around my house to see what I could cart over to the Davis so as to add “Artwork Donor” to my list of accomplishments. “On permanent loan from the Brown Collection” has such a nice ring to it.